Minister of Finance and Nationwide Income Francois-Philippe Champagne, left, and India’s Minister of Finance and Company Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman take part in a dialogue on the Canadian Membership, in Toronto on Thursday, August 27, 2026.
| Picture Credit score: The Canadian Press through AP
Finance and Company Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Canadian Minister of Finance and Nationwide Income François-Philippe Champagne on Friday (August 28, 2026) issued a joint assertion that reiterated the 2 nations’ dedication to conclude the India-Canada trade deal by the tip of 2026.
The joint assertion additionally stated that India had expressed its readiness to start negotiations on a Bilateral Funding Treaty “on the earliest”. The assertion adopted the conclusion of the inaugural India-Canada Finance Ministers’ Financial and Monetary Dialogue in Toronto.
Commerce and funding offers
“The Dialogue builds on the dedication made by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Prime Minister Narendra Modi throughout their assembly in New Delhi in March 2026 to strengthen bilateral financial and monetary cooperation, together with the shared dedication to conclude Canada-India Complete Financial Partnership Settlement (CEPA) talks by the tip of 2026,” the assertion stated.
It added that, through the Dialogue, the Ministers mentioned the mutual advantages of additional strengthening bilateral financial and funding ties, to assist monetary and business linkages between India and Canada and assist the 2 Prime Ministers’ shared aspiration to broaden bilateral commerce to ₹4.65 lakh crore by 2030 from the ₹70,354 crore in 2025-26.
The assertion additionally stated that “India expressed its readiness to provoke negotiations on a Bilateral Funding Treaty on the earliest”.
Sectoral engagements
The 2 Ministers additionally mentioned methods to facilitate larger engagement between Indian and Canadian monetary establishments and institutional traders and to discover commercially viable funding alternatives throughout sectors of mutual curiosity.
“The Ministers explored alternatives for deeper collaboration on a variety of financial-sector points, together with funds modernisation, monetary stability, FinTech innovation, capital markets improvement and efforts to deal with monetary crime,” the assertion stated.
Significance of bilateral offers
Throughout a press convention following the Dialogue, Ms. Sitharaman additionally spoke about how the present world financial situation had proven that bilateral engagements have gotten more and more vital.
“Due to the [global] uncertainties, emphasis is now on bilateral relationships,” Ms. Sitharaman stated. “While plurilateral relationships are high-quality, bilateral relationships clearly match each other’s potential and challenges to the benefit of every.”
“And in that, Canada and India have recognized their strengths, clearly marked the place the potential lies and due to this fact a bilateral commerce relationship,” she added. “And the settlement which may quickly be concluded, the CEPA dialogues are happening, will convey most alternative for each folks of Canada and India.”
Pitch for Canadian pension funds
Whereas the joint assertion acknowledged that Canadian pension funds are already vital traders in India, Ms. Sitharaman pitched for even larger investments from them.
“The Canadian pension fund has been very a lot engaged with India,” she famous through the press convention. “We want extra of them to be right here with us as a result of, since 2020, simply earlier than COVID-19 began, we put out an entire record of the nationwide pipeline for asset monetisation in India. And that has turn into a really rising pipeline of funding alternatives for many who are in search of increased returns on their investments.”
She additionally spoke about India’s funding in infrastructure and dawn sectors equivalent to inexperienced ammonia, hydrogen, superior battery storage, area, and modular nuclear reactors.
“So, there are immense prospects for funds to come back and put money into India,” Ms. Sitharaman stated, including that officers of GIFT Metropolis and the Nationwide Infrastructure Funding Fund (NIIF) had accompanied her to Canada to interact with the Canadian funds.
Revealed – August 28, 2026 12:59 pm IST
